February 21, 2008 - Accumetrics Inc. has raised $28.8 million in its Series D financing, which will enable the company to initiate the GRAVITAS study and develop solutions for personalized medicine for cardiovascular disease.
The syndicate was led by Arnerich Massena & Associates, Inc. and BBT Fund, L.P. Also participating in the round were previous investors: Essex Woodland Health Ventures, RiverVest, PTV Sciences, KB Partners and Kaiser Permanente Ventures.
Accumetrics has multiple reimbursed and FDA cleared products to assist physicians in their care of patients regarding antiplatelet medications.
Because millions of patients are prescribed Plavix and aspirin to lower the risk of coronary heart disease worldwide, there is reportedly need to tailor antiplatelet therapy and improve clinical outcome. Under the direction of the Scripps Advanced Clinical Trials center, Accumetrics is sponsoring a 6000 patient, multi-center trial, called GRAVITAS (Gauging Responsiveness With A VerifyNow Assay-Impact On Thrombosis And Safety) to establish platelet function testing with VerifyNow as the standard of care. The Executive Committee comprises a group of physicians in the field of cardiology and includes Matthew Price, M.D., principal investigator), Eric Topol, M.D., Paul Teirstein, M.D., and Christopher Cannon, M.D.
"The GRAVITAS trial, using VerifyNow to gauge patients' response is prototypic of the future of individualized medicine," said Matthew Price, M.D., director, Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory, Scripps Clinic, La Jolla, CA. "Not everyone responds the same way to current anti-platelet medications, so why should we treat our patients as if they did? The results of this trial will help physicians make clinical decisions to maximize safety and improve outcomes for a large number of patients taking anti-platelet therapy."
For more information: www.accumetrics.com